Kenya; The tussle between Kenyan corporate titans Equity Bank and Safaricom regarding the Thin-SIM technology shows no sign of letting up and has reached the biggest office in the land.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday revealed that the conflict between the two firms has been brought to his attention and maintained that despite the stiff competition, the interest of Kenyan consumers should be upheld.
“Some people came to me to say that licensing this or that will have consequences. We have all this mobile money (they said) and others are coming up with new SIMs (that put it at risk)’. But I told them: ‘Let them (Equity and Safaricom) fight it out. All we want is cheaper and better products for people,” he said.
The president was speaking at a gathering of regional leaders in Kigali, Rwanda, where he maintained that competition in Kenya’s mobile money industry was healthy and will register deeper financial inclusion to the benefit of users.
Equity Bank is preparing a national launch for its new virtual mobile money transfer service Equitel, despite protests from Safaricom on the basis that the Thin-SIM technology, which Equitel is based on, had the ability to quietly steal data from the main SIM, including the secret personal identification numbers and pass them to a third party.
Equity bank has also been sued by a private citizen and a customer of the bank who sought to suspend the roll out of the new service. Data specialist Bernard Murage, on Tuesday went to court seeking orders to stop Equity’s subsidiary Finserve Africa and Equity Bank, from rolling out its mobile virtual money network on grounds of insecurity.
While commenting on the issue, President Uhuru insisted that the benefits of the new technology outweigh the risks and that adoption was inevitable.
“New technologies are creating advantages for our people and yes, we can make some mistakes but we will learn and use technology to drive our development agenda,” said Uhuru.
The president also urged media owners and the Communication Authority of Kenya, CAK to speed up the digital migration process, which will facilitate growth in the country’s film industry. “Let us go through digital migration and participate in it, and let young people make productions and air them,” he said. “Competition is good. Yes, you have invested heavily, but I ask you to work with young people.”
He also said media consumers will benefit from the planned switch to digital broadcasts, and urged existing players to welcome the new environment.
The Standard Group Plc is a
multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper
print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key
influence in matters of national and international interest.
join